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Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

4th of July update.

I've gotten the right rear disassembled, cleaned, smoothed with the clay bar, and have 3 of 4 coats of M7 applied by hand. It's looking so much better than before, it's crazy. In the pic below, the left rear has been hit with the UC once (after all the above steps) and the right is as described. My next challenge comes with the "turbo" script badge. What to do? Pic 2 is it all cleaned up before any product, and the 3rd pic is it after 3 applications of the M7. I'm open to suggestions as the paint hasn't really ever been touched around the badge. Removing the emblem would be the easiest way to correct the paint, but at the cost of possibly breaking the emblem. I would try q-tips if that's appropriate and "finish safe". Or, are there other tricks anyone would suggest?

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

The progress is looking hard but good! It's nice to see a classic like this being brought back to it's former glory. I was too young to appreciate these when they were new on the street but they certainly catch my eye these days.

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

I was too young to appreciate these when they were new on the street but they certainly catch my eye these days.

Thanks... now I feel just a bit older. LOL.

Small update today:

I'm sorry this is a little/boring one. I had spent some time with cotton swabs and microfibers and tried to use many of the suggestions I've gotten here and around the web. In the end though; I could tell it wasn't going to come out as good as I would like. Grabbed the trusty dental floss and took the risk of pulling the badge. Since I'm the customer, it was in my hands. Luckily, I sawed it off with ease. The adhesive tape was a completely different animal though. The hair dryer and plastic scraper didn't even touch it. Goo Gone had little effect. It came down to my thumbnail + goo gone + TIME. Once I had all the adhesive off I went over it with the clay bar. After all the rubbing/scraping/wiping/clay bar, etc... it still is as clear as day exactly where the badge was. Let this be a lesson to anyone wondering what type of difference they may find if they pull their emblems. I've treated the area with M7 for the night and will hopefully start doing some correction tomorrow.

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

Good on you for tackling that badge in the manner you did! I know you had concerns about the brittleness of it. Hows the interior on this thing?

Yeah; I'm sorry, I'm 38 years old. I've recently (past 5 years) developed an appreciation for cars of this era. If you think about it, I was too young to appreciate them when they were new and when I got old enough to appreciate cars in general, cars from this era were not too desirable used cars. Face it, in the 90's older Porshes and new Porches were hot, but Porches from the 80's had fallen out of the love. It was like that for my favorite car too! In the 90's the Mustangs that were hot where from the 60's and early 70's, or the brand new Mustangs. It wasn't until the past 5 years that the boxy, Fox body cars from the 80's started coming into their own. In the 90's, those Mustangs were just crappy used Fords! LOL

You're doing a great job with this thing. It's going to be worthy of the 80's car poster hanging in some kid's bedroom next to the poster of the Lambo!

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

It's all good GLOCKer, no need to apologize, was just goofing. I'm older than you, but there are many guys older than me too. You're exactly right about most 80's cars. They just weren't desirable for a long time. Especially the watercooled Porsches from the aircooled era. In fact, I picked this 951 up when the price was LOW about 10 years ago. 72K original miles, clean black leather interior, horrible paint (or so the seller and I thought). I went looking for comps on it this AM after I read your post. Yeah, triple what I paid. YAY, except, if I ever sell, I'll never afford another one. The funny thing about these cars nowadays is that they are worth double their value if parted out. MANY items are directly from the aircooled 911. Leather seats, leather steering wheel, original radio, climate controls, etc... Anyways, back to the story.

Friday night update:
So I just had to get back to my badge ordeal. Tonight was the night I was going to hit the right rear with the UC. There's lots of prep work, then about an hour and a half of DA action... WHAM! Looks amazing. :-) Well, I do have a problem. As evidenced by the pic, I am going to have a tough time putting the badge back on right. :-) Actually, the pic is a little deceiving. It is possible to see that the paint under the lettering is "thicker" than the remainder. So as another lesson to anyone asking: There is NO substitute for removing the lettering. It just simply won't come out half as good. After I finished this I completed a good pass on the rest of the back with the UC. It's great stuff. I was also a little more aggressive on the bumper end cap and it looks better than the driver's side. (I'll return to that side and get it again) The 2nd pic is after I was done for the night. Notice the untouched paint on the passenger's side where my work ends. Yeow.

I feel that I need to stop and thank everyone for the well-wishes, words of wisdom and support. I simply can't believe that "I" am able to make such a change on this car. I am not a professional, I don't have the best tools and I don't have any professional training. It's a highly rewarding job and I only wish I had half skills some of you folks have. With that said, if anyone's in the central PA area and wants to give some pointers in-person, PM me. :-) On to the pics...

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Where did the badge go again? (Color is a little off because I had my LED trouble light so close)

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

Sat night update:

Moving on to the next section; the roof. WOW, what a mess. I am a little disappointed in the condition of what's up here. I cleaned and ran the clay bar over everything and was rewarded with some large flaws. The previous owners have completely buffed through the hard edges around the sunroof and on the side roof rails to the point the aluminum is showing through shiny... OW. There are at least 10 medium to large chips (one around .75" diameter) that will need to be dealt with. Overall, the paint is far worse on this flat horizontal surface. I finished up tonight by applying 2 coats of M7 and letting it sit. My big concerns are the chips. I don't know when the proper time is and the best kit to do a repair. I'd like a single-stage solution that will be as close of a match physically to the original. I'm a realist though and understand that getting it perfect isn't going to be possible. Any suggestions would be appreciated! On to the pics:

Re: In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

So, it's been a couple days..... Not because I was lazy and didn't post; but because I ran into my 1st real challenge. The roof paint is just demolished. I did 4 M7 coats with vigorous manual application, then cleaned it all off and had to use UC for 2 full passes/sessions to get it to be about 75%. My green microfibers looked like I was wiping blood up there was so much red coming off. I stopped because I'm not comfortable going too much harder on it. I don't have the experience to know what I can and can't do. I'll be going over the whole car again with UP, so that will hopefully help. It's a little disheartening to see all the burnt through edges from previous aggressive rotary buffers. I was good and taped off the hard edges and really tried to improve on my technique. It just shows me that I was spoiled by the vertical panels with their "light" oxidation vs. these with "serious" oxidation. I'm now dreading the hood since it's huge. LOL. Ordered some touch-up paint and a sanding pen to get that additional project moving. On to the pics for today:

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Do you see a difference? Remember, the bad side has been cleaned, clay bar, 4 rubdowns of M7 already!

Done for now, I'm hoping I can refine it a little when I do a full pass with the Ultimate Polish.